Waitaki is proving a hit with Chinese tourists, with Tourism Waitaki’s November Destination Management Report showing the district bucking national trends.
Spending by Chinese visitors grew by 20% from November 2023 to November 2024, significantly outperforming the national average of a 2% decrease.
Chinese visitors also demonstrated strong interest in the hospitality industry, with the food and beverage sector seeing a 48% increase.
The report also suggested international visitors were spending more money while in town as international visitor card spending grew by 17%, outpacing the increase in international guest nights (11%).
It was not all positive, however, as domestic card spending was down 6%, although domestic accommodation use increased by 6%.
Spending figures are only reflective of electronic card transactions, categorised by the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification product categories.
Tourism Waitaki general manager Dr Philippa Agnew was pleased with the numbers and said visitor numbers had now returned to much the same level they were at before the Covid-19 pandemic.
"It’s taken five years to get there but we got there in the end.
"The China market for us has always been really strong and that’s built on years and years of close relationships with our agents, those trade operators who sell overseas into China."
There were also fewer people joining tour groups and more people exploring independently, she said.
This was a contributing factor to longer stays and more spending.
"Those figures that you can see in the higher spend in food and accommodation probably represent the fact that more are travelling independently so will stay a bit longer, eat more in the restaurants and that sort of thing."
Dr Agnew expected more positive numbers to come from January, with the filming of Netflix’s East of Eden mini-series and Chinese New Year bringing more people to Oamaru.
"I would imagine all of the operators locally have had a really busy January and first few weeks of February so far."
Dr Agnew, who is also the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony science and environmental manager, said the colony viewings had been packed out.
"The premium viewing stand is often booked out months in advance.
"For the rest of our viewing, the general stand was booked every night during Chinese New Year."
